Organize your containers

As your Google Tag Manager implementations grow over time, it is a good idea to put some strategies in place for how to organize your containers.

One account, multiple containers

Most organizations will set up a single Tag Manager account for all of their containers. Within that account, the most common practice is to use a unique container for each website or mobile app. For example, a bike shop has a website that is set up to showcase their business, and they have built an app to track workouts. They have set up four containers in Tag Manager:

Use folders to organize content

Folders can help you organize a container's tags, triggers, and variables into logical groups that can help make your Tag Manager configurations easier to manage. Folders can be used to organize your content in several ways:

Organize by project: Create a folder for a new microsite, or for a new ad campaign.

Organize tag by team: Create a folder for an agency to work in, and another for your marketing team.

Organize tags by type: Create a folder for Google Analytics tags, another folder for Google Ads tags, and another folder for 3rd party tags.

Establish descriptive naming conventions

Tag Manager configurations can grow over time to include a large number of tags, triggers, variables, versions, and workspaces. To keep your container's content organized and easy to work with, we recommend that you use a naming convention similar to the following pattern: <item type> - <name of app> - <detail>​.

Examples:

Google Ads conversions - Ecommerce website - 2018-01 campaign

Google Ads conversions - Android - 2017-12 campaign

Analytics pageviews - Info site + blog

Floodlight - Ecommerce website - product categories

Use Descriptions

On the workspace overview page there is a card to view and edit the workspace's description. Use this feature to describe what the container is used for, what work is currently in progress, and any other notes that will help others understand the changes that the given workspace represents.

Manage container size

For optimal performance and workspace manageability, keep the number of tag, trigger, and variable configurations in a given container at a reasonable size. Remove any items from your container that are no longer needed. Consolidate multiple tags with similar functions into a single tag. Lookup table variables and RegEx table variables are especially useful for tag consolidation. Learn more.